Obscura (Montreal Fringe)

San Francisco performer Christian Cagigal takes the stage in his one part magic, one part story-telling adventure of Obscura. Cagigal tells moralistic fables of good and evil, heaven and hell, God and the Devil while performing card tricks that progress the stories and bewilder the audiences.

Now, I know what you must be thinking, an hour of card tricks? I’ll pass. But you shouldn’t. The setup is clever and unique. Cagigal does all of his magic tricks under a video recorder hooked up to a screen, so you’re able to see every deliberate move his hands make at all moments which makes each and every one of his tricks much more impressive. In fact this show would not work at all without that camera, just as the hour of card tricks would not work without the stories.

The stories that Cagigal tells loosely ties into each other and feature a lot of crossroads in which individuals are very quick to sell their souls to the Devil, in fact so much, that it becomes the easy go to as a stories punchline. This isn’t to take away from Cagigal’s story-telling abilities though, he can carefully craft and weave a story into existence and spin that web to bring the audience in hook, line and sinker, in a very calm and controlled manner.

The show is also often funny. Cagigal does come across cocky, as magicians should to a point, but also is able to hold back on the energy level creating a kind of mystery to his performance.

If a more laid back, low-key evening of story-telling and magic is your style; make sure to check out Cagigal’s Obscura.

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